


love is the red (the rose on your coffin door)

by ragesyndrome



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, Bisexual Female Character, F/F, F/M, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Polyamory, Red is a baby gay and doesnt know what to do, Rumple knows everything as usual, True Love's Kiss, aesthetically getting back to the original fairy tale vibes more than the show, but still happy endings all around i promise, enchanted forest, kind of a character study of Red bc she never got enough screentime, snow and charming went to dbt they got communication skills babey!!, snow is SUPER lovey dovey with pet names, we stan open communication
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 14:19:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18802048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ragesyndrome/pseuds/ragesyndrome
Summary: "Rumpelstiltskin knew what the Queen did not: Sometimes, a person is born with more than one true love."Or: Polyamory saves the day yall.





	love is the red (the rose on your coffin door)

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this bc I love Snow/Charming but I'm also super gay.

Snow White fell into a cursed sleep, and her prince did not come. Charming, who was called James, who was really just David, a soft-spoken shepherd with a kind heart, had been foiled by the Evil Queen, lost forever to the Infinite Forest. Rumpelstiltskin did not save him. He knew what the Queen did not: Sometimes, a person is born with more than one true love.

It was winter. Snow White lay upon the frozen earth, a perfect red apple by her hand, until her beloved dwarfs carried her away. They were skilled craftsmen and channeled their sorrow into work. Unable to bear the thought of never seeing Snow’s face again, they built her a glass coffin. So Snow lay, half in a state of death, in a world that looked much like it had when she had first come into it: cold and white and still.

The dwarfs thought, perhaps, the prince she’d spoken so fondly of would arrive. If he could not undo the spell, surely he would at least come to say goodbye. But days and days passed, and on the fourteenth day since Snow was cursed, they held their last vigil, as was their custom when a loved one died.

It was that day that someone did come - a woman with a fire in her bright eyes, a snarl replacing her usual bright smile, and a blood red cloak wrapped about her shoulders. Seeing her dear friend, breathing and yet lifeless somehow, Rose Red wept upon the glass coffin. The dwarfs kept watch with her through the silent, frigid day, until the night grew too cold to reasonably stay out.

“Come, lass,” said Grumpy. “No use getting sick out here.”

“I’m not leaving.”

The dwarf looked up at her, and Red could not help but to think, _How selfish am I to think my grief is greater than any of theirs? They’re her family too._

“You’ll freeze,” he said, very simply.

“Like this, maybe,” Red agreed, unclasping her cloak. The dwarfs backed away nervously as she phased into the wolf; she knew Snow had told them about her nature, but they’d never seen her transition. Finally she settled by the glass coffin, ready for a hard night even with fur thick enough to stave off the threat of frostbite. With that, the dwarfs went away to go to bed, though Red doubted any of them would rest well that night, save perhaps Sleepy.

As the hours grew darker, Red’s grief turned to rage. How could the Evil Queen do such a thing, cursing Snow White to a fate worse than death? How could her so-called Prince Charming abandon her now - how dare he not hold vigil beside her like the true love he claimed to be? How was Red meant to go the rest of her life without her best friend?

On the journey here, she’d put her anxiety and grief in a box and locked them away. The prince would come and true love’s kiss could save her best friend… Only to learn, in the end, he wasn’t there at all. It had taken Red near a fortnight to arrive, and she didn’t have the same resources Charming did. She didn’t even have true love.

A thought came to her, wild and desperate. Something she might have thought of before, once or twice, in less dire situations, a fleeting hope immediately buried. This time, she had something far greater than her reputation to lose. Shaking with trepidation, the wolf turned back into a girl. The cold hit Red’s skin like a thousand needles, and pulling her cloak to her, which she’d foolishly left in a heap on the frozen ground, did little to help. Shivering, she moved to the glass coffin and looked down upon the sleeping princess.

All the tales she’d heard were very specific about the kind of love that could break a curse; surely a best friend couldn’t do the job that a lover could. But what use was Red’s heart, raw and broken as it was, if it didn’t have the power to save Snow White? The stories she’d heard had seemed the stuff of child’s dreams, fanciful and convenient. The way Red now felt like her body was rendering itself apart, the way she wanted to run and tear the earth beneath her paws until she found the Evil Queen and tasted her blood… the way she knew, after sweet revenge was had, she would only be empty, and then the real pain would hit her. This wasn’t like the bedtime stories she’d heard. This was real and awful and all she knew was that if she did nothing, she’d never be able to live with herself.

The coffin’s lid wasn’t easy to remove; it had been made to be lifted by seven dwarfs, and Red was only one cold and tired girl. Her muscles were slow to move, and the frozen glass bit into her fingers sharper than ice. After several heaves, she sent the lid crashing to the ground, horrified for a moment that she might have shattered it, but the glass did not break.

Red leaned over Snow, her heart in her throat. It was clear that Snow was alive, even in a corpse-like slumber, but would the cold still hurt her? Could it kill her? If it affected her, it didn’t show; she continued to sleep and to breathe steadily, and otherwise didn’t move a muscle. For a moment, Red was struck by her friend’s beauty. Anyone could admit to appreciating her looks; there was no shame in that. Yet Red had always found ways to deny herself; now, with Snow sleeping, she drank in the sight of her. The night was dark and the moon providing little light at a waxing crescent, but Snow’s skin seemed to take in whatever light there was and reflect it back with an ethereal glow, exactly like the snow which covered the ground. Her hair was a dark ocean fanning around her, a more elegant crown than anything crafted for her when she’d lived in a castle.

A tear fell from Red’s eyes to land on Snow’s cheek, near the shadow of her dark lashes and rolling to the corner of her mouth.

Feeling like such a thing was a stain on her friend, Red carefully brushed the tear away. Her thumb lingered, treacherously, at the corner of Snow’s lips, slightly warmed by her soft exhale. Terrified, Red glanced about her, confirming that no one was around. Her blood was pounding so hard it could have drawn attention as sure as any war-drum.

“Please forgive me, my dear friend, if you don’t want this,” she whispered, blaming the shake of her voice on the cold rather than all the fear and affection threatening to overtake her. Finally, she bent toward the coffin and pressed her lips to Snow’s.

For a terrible moment, she was about to sob in disappointment as Snow remained unchanged.

Then, in a pulse of raw love, color shook through the wintry forest and engulfed everything for one shuddering moment. With a soft, deeper, lovely inhale, Snow White opened her eyes.

Red wept freely, unable to contain all the wild feelings running through her like lightning, and when she saw Snow also crying she knew the love she felt for what it was. Together they shook in the moonlight, and Red clambered all the way into the coffin, kneeling over Snow with her cloak wrapped around both of them. She barely registered the heat of Snow’s lips pressing to her cheeks, her nose, her eyelids, her lips again and again.

“I don’t know what’s happening,” Red confessed.

Snow pulled back, only far enough to meet Red’s eyes. “You saved me. Any curse can be broken.” Her eyes shone with tears and with something else and if Red hadn’t already been a mess, the look on Snow’s face would’ve have been the thing to wreck her.

“But what about James?”

Snow shifted under her, anxiety troubling her eyes. “He is my love. And so are you.”

Whether it was that revelation or just the cold hitting her again after so much adrenaline, Red struggled to stop the shaking of her hands. Immediately, Snow’s fingers were laced into hers, rubbing circles into her skin. Snow never been as bothered by the cold as most people, and in this light she could have been mistaken for a fairy, or something yet more ethereal.

Red found her voice again. “I don’t understand.”

Snow let out a soft laugh, the kind that seemed almost self-deprecating. “I don’t either. I want you to know… I am so sorry, my dear. I wanted to tell you for so long what I felt, but I wasn’t brave enough.” She seemed to be forcing herself not to look away, her eyes locked onto Red as if willing all her affection and sincerity to pour out through her eyes, to shine brighter than her shame. “I don’t know how to explain. It is like… All I know is that my heart is his, and it is also yours. I love both of you. I do. I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do now.”

Something halfway between jealousy and fierce protective instincts kicked up in Red, tasting like metal on her tongue. “He didn’t come.” Snow’s eyes flared in fear and Red wished she could shut her mouth but she couldn’t. “The dwarfs have been with you this whole time and he never came.”

But Snow did not react the way Red was expecting. “Is he alright? Do you know where he is? Something must have happened-”

“You’re defending him?” Even as she said the words she heard how it sounded like an attack. A quiet, hurt gasp escaped Snow’s lips and Red threw her arms tighter around her, willing her body to say what apparently her tongue could not.

“I do know what it looks like,” admitted Snow, whispering into Red’s shoulder. “The queen promised to spare him after cursing me, but she must have lied. He wouldn’t choose not to be here. He always finds me. I know that.”

After a long moment, finally Red felt capable of sitting back to look at her again. Softly, fearful of sounding aggressive again, she asked, “What will you do?”

“I have to find him, I have to… He always finds me, now it’s my turn. I’m going after him.” She paused, glancing away and then quickly back, as if nervous. “Would you come with me?”

Red almost jumped to answer yes until she hesitated. She would do anything for Snow White, she knew that now, yet the idea of helping her get to her other love so quickly after discovering what they themselves could have… “I don’t know. I just… I’m sorry, I don’t want to say this-”

“Please, sweetheart.” Warm circles rubbed into Red’s hands again. “Please tell me.”

“I never knew what I felt for you until minutes ago, and it just feels like, like I’m already losing you.”

“Oh love,” Snow murmured, and hearing her say that sent a lightning thrill through Red’s bones even as frightened as she was of where this conversation might end. “You aren’t losing me, I promise that. I believe we can all find a way.” Her eyes bore into Red, their pull as weighted as the full moon had once been and Red was definitely beginning to wonder if her love was entirely human.

When the meaning of Snow’s words fully hit her, she shuddered. “You want to be with both of us?”

Like a broken spell, the faint glow she’d seemed to emanate passed and Snow White looked very much mortal again, her fair cheeks turning red. “It’s unconventional, I know,” she said quietly. “But if I choose between you, either way I will tear my heart. Do you think…” she bit her lip, “do you think you could ever love him? He is kind and steadfast and braver than he should be. He’s really a lot like you.”

“I don’t know,” admitted Red. “I don’t feel for him like you do, or like I feel for you. But I always thought he was good. I want to trust him… if he was truly kept from you against his will, maybe I could love him in a different way.”

Flashing forward, Snow pressed a quick kiss to the tip of Red’s nose. “Oh, love, I know it’s so sudden, I… I don’t even know where he is, I just know I need him as much as I need you.”

Red leaned forward, returning the kiss into Snow’s dark hair. “Do you mean that?” she asked, in a barely audible murmur as she cursed herself for even needing to clarify.

“Yes, yes my darling. I do.” She nuzzled her face between Red’s neck and shoulder, her lips grazing across Red’s throat and all Red could think was, _sometime, some other time when I’m not sobbing and freezing and feeling like my body is too small for my soul, we are going to revisit this and I will find out if kissing her throat feels as good to her as it feels to me._ Now was not the time.

Snow was murmuring something into Red’s hair. “Hmm?”

“I was just thinking. I’d like if we all talk it through later. After we find Charming.” Snow had lifted her face back up to Red’s, lips grazing her cheeks light as a feather but not quite making contact.

A spike of fear shot through Red’s heart at the idea of having this whole conversation again, and how it might all turn on her. “Yes. Definitely.”

She loved the warm breath hitting her skin and she loved Snow White and she did not love the way Snow’s brow creased with worry and she looked intensely into Red as if scrying into her very soul. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just…” Red sighed, “I don’t know. I think I’m overwhelmed right now.”

“Talk to me, dear.”

Red didn’t want to admit any of what was going to pour out of her but there was no stopping it now. “You know, I thought I lost you? I grieved for you and here you are, and I’m happier than I’ve ever been and I’m also so scared of losing you again. I mean I’ll be okay. You’ve been through so much more, I’m, I’m fine.” Embarrassed and feeling the heat rise in her face, she tried to look down and hide under her hair.

Then she felt Snow grasp her hands, delicately kissing her fingers, then her wrists, achingly slowly until Red was willing to make eye contact again. She had never been moved by poetry much but she felt deep in her bones that Snow had eyes that sonnets could be written about. Slowly Snow came closer, resting their foreheads together. Eyes closed, they breathed into each other.

“You believe that I love you?”

Red laughed quietly. “I’m still adjusting to it.”

A kiss between her brows. “Believe, sweetheart. We can make this work.”

“I love you too, you know.” In saying it Red felt like her heart shifted and settled into place, grounded with roots and nourishment. Syncing her breath with Snow’s felt the same as laying a hundred days in grass and sunlight.

After an immeasurable moment, Red broke the silence. “It’s fucking freezing out here.”

Snow giggled into her. “I know. We should go inside. When did you last sleep?” she asked then, her expression turning more serious.

Startled at the change of tone, Red stuttered, “W-why?”

Her returned anxiety was starting to be more apparent. As her friend, Red had been good and knowing what Snow was feeling, but she was so overwhelmed in this new territory that she kept missing signals. “It’s just,” Snow started. “I am not likely to be sleeping. And I know it’s late and we shouldn’t do anything till morning, but I’m worried about Charming. I can’t imagine what the queen’s done to him but I need to find out.”

There was, unfortunately, a loud crack nearby, followed by a bloom of burgundy smoke and an all too recognizable giggle. “And that, dearies, is my cue!” The Dark One appeared, perched on a rock like a lazy tree-cat, moonlight dancing off his scaled flesh. “So glad you made it after all,” he went on in a sing-song voice. “Happy, happy day.”

Red’s instinct was to place herself between the Dark One and Snow, but the princess beat her to it with a firm arm holding Red back and guarding her. Snow’s voice was cold and careful, immediately returned to the long practiced cadence she’d been raised with as a noblewoman. “Rumpelstiltskin. What do you want?”

The Dark One laughed. “I merely came by to congratulate the two of you. And,” narrowing his glittering eyes at Snow, “to bring news of your _twoo wuv._ Your other one, if you’re still interested, that is.”

Red felt her love bristling with restrained fury. “Where is he?” Snow demanded. “What happened to him?”

Unaffected, Rumpelstiltskin clucked his tongue and wagged a finger at her. “Don’t be hasty. We have yet to discuss payment!”

“You want to make a deal?”

The Dark One rolled his eyes. “Well it is what I do.”

At that, Red had enough of watching him walk over Snow, her vision focusing in entirely on him and channeling all her pent-up anger. “I’ll make you a deal,” she said hotly. Even wearing her enchanted cloak she could feel her body preparing itself to hunt. “You tell us where Prince James is, and I won’t eat you alive.”

“My, my, my!” exclaimed the Dark One, mockingly fanning his face as if shocked by her boldness. “Temper, dearie. You know you can’t kill me.”

Snow’s hand tightened on Red’s wrist and she already knew she wasn’t helping but the Dark One’s eyes held a challenge and she wouldn’t back down. “I know,” she said quietly, certain he could hear her perfectly clearly regardless. “But I can make it hurt.”

“Goodness gracious, and they call me a villain!” Rumpelstiltskin jumped from his perch, stepping nimbly across the frozen earth and rounding in on Red, malice and delight in his smile. “I wonder, would you do to me what you did to that poor boy in your village? A little bondage then slice and dice? Or better, what you did to your mother, all to save your _dear princess_ here? Beautiful, by the way,” he cackled. “Big fan of your work, truly. But you can put your claws away, dearie, I’m afraid they will not work on me.” He drew back with a little spin and flourish, maneuvering from cruel to playful in a second. “There is something, however, you _could_ do for me.”

Snow’s grip turned hard as ice around Red’s arm. “What,” she repeated through gritted teeth, “do you want, Rumpelstiltskin?”

Clapping both hands to his face like a child being given sweets. “Never fear, you need not dread, _just a hair from Rose Red’s head!”_ he sang.

Desperate to get everything done with, Red was prepared to agree and rip a hair out immediately, but Snow stopped her with a warning squeeze. Her arms were trembling but she held her head high at the Dark One, looking for all the world like the queen she was raised to be. “You asked for my hair once,” she spoke warily to the Dark One, “and Charming’s. Now you ask for hers. What are you up to?”

For a long moment, Rumpelstiltskin seemed to debate whether to answer or to fire off a quip and take what he wanted anyway. His voice still sang but it was quieter, his eyes darker and more human-like when he answered. “True love is a powerful ingredient. I had some suspicions, which the two of you confirmed today, and I need the rest of the recipe. Trust me dearies! This is a deal you want to make. For once, we all want the same thing.”

“Why?” asked Red. “Why would you want to help us?”

“I told you,” the Dark One answered impatiently. “True love is too rare and powerful to be unprotected. I’m extremely invested in your happy ending, and, more importantly, what it creates.” He looked to Snow. “That ring on your finger! Give it to me a moment.”

Snow’s hand flew to her chest protectively, and Red remembered the significance of the simple yet elegant green ring she wore. “It’s Charming’s,” whispered Snow, sadly.

“I’m well aware, dearie, that’s why I asked for it,” snapped Rumpelstiltskin. “Would you like to find your precious prince?”

Reluctantly, Snow twisted the ring off her finger and handed it over; Red felt such a pang of guilt and empathy she pressed a quick kiss to Snow’s shoulder, hoping the action conveyed support.

The Dark One’s clever hands worked around the jewel, a plethora of colored lights dancing from his clawed fingers into the ring. Finally, all the lights braided together to form a single beam, shining from the jewel into the woods westward.

He held out the ring with a smile, but when Snow reached, he yanked it back. “Ah, ah, ah,” he clucked. “If you want it, your lady friend will have to relinquish one hair from her head!”

“Gods, just take it already,” Red groaned, plucking one long hair from the root and extending it toward the Dark One. With that, the enchanted ring was returned, and Snow clutched it to her face like a soft animal for a moment, before slipping it back into place on her finger.

“Where is Charming?” she asked again, emotion beginning to shake her voice.

“Oh, some large and impregnable fortress, I’m sure. Or was it the Infinite Forest? Yes, that was it. Been there?”

Now it was Red’s turn to roll her eyes. “No, but we get the gist. How are we supposed to get there?”

The Dark One sighed, as if their incompetence with magic was a monumental disappointment to him. “Follow that light, and you will find your Charming. Good luck! Ta ta!” With a high giggle, the Dark One disappeared in smoke.

The night was truly much colder now and the moon had traveled far across the sky from where it’d been when Red had held silent vigil. With stiff and frozen legs, the two climbed out of the coffin hand in hand, making their way to the house of dwarfs. Red’s energy was spent, having allotted everything she had into managing her emotions, and it seemed Snow felt the same way; the shorter princess slumped into her as they walked.

“We have a way now, darling,” Red said quietly. She wasn’t as comfortable using pet names as Snow clearly was, but she was willing to try new love languages. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll leave in the morning and go after him.”

Snow fiddled with her ring, which did not appear to have any way of turning _off_ the beam of light and color, lighting the way not toward but away from the cottage. “Thank you,” whispered Snow, so quiet Red almost wasn’t sure she’d really heard it.

The sun was just beginning to rise as they walked, bathing the landscape in saturated pink and lighting upon Snow White and Rose Red.

**Author's Note:**

> I was listening to Thank You For The Venom by MCR at work and stopped in my tracks like, "SNOW ??? AND RUBY ?? IN LOVE ?????? its more likely than you think!!" so here we are.
> 
> In the show, it looked like Snow bit the apple sometime in early spring, but purely for aesthetic purposes I moved it to the dead of winter. There's a couple bits I took directly from 1x22 - when Mary Margaret reads from the storybook to a comatose Henry and describes TLK as "a pulse of pure love engulfing the land" (I'm paraphrasing it now whoops), I loved that line so much - as well as the bit where Rumple makes a deal with Charming in the Infinite Forest and said, "This is a deal you want to make, we want the same thing", I transferred that into this. I had sooo much fun writing Rumple tbh. He's an absolute menace.
> 
> As far as the last sentence here goes, I'm not sure how they spent literally the entire night out there, but I couldn't resist writing about a pink sunrise, bc the colors in their names literally make pink and they're gay!!
> 
> There will be one more chapter!! My schedule is hectic af recently so I'm not gonna give a deadline I can't commit to, it'll definitely be up in less than a month.
> 
> Also: this work is unbeta'd, any mistakes are my own!!


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